From 1 November through summer starting at 5pm the AWA will run social races. Each will be weather dependent and held at one of Pt Chev, Meola reef, Buckland's beach or Takapuna. The one we select each Wednesday being weather and tide dependent.
Details will be announced on Tuesdays via the usual channels. You can then pack your cars and come straight from work the next day to enjoy the fun.
The format is rolling races starting every 15 minutes. So if you can't get there until 6pm you can still join it. You can sync your start watch from a watch that will be placed behind a car windscreen at the venue.
Details will be announced on Tuesdays via the usual channels.
No scoring or protests etc. The aim is to give people start line and gybe mark experience, without the pressure of winning. A long distance race or two may be thrown in.
Last race will be at 7pm with some beers and bbq and some beach side race reflection/education by some of use "experienced" racers.
The idea here is that if we pick a fixed day each week, it will be easier to get it scheduled in with the other halves. The other halves will get to accept that each Wednesday its race day. If the wind is not cooperative then its a bonus for the other halves to have their addicted halves off the water.

2015
National Windsurfing Day - February 1st
2015 New Zealand Slalom Nationals - Christchurch - February 4-8th
Mangawhai Camping weekend - February 14-15th
Family Fun Day - February 22nd
Race Series Event 4 - March 15-16th
Race Series Event 5 - March 28-29th
Speed Event - April 10/11th and/or 18/19th
Race Series Event 6 - May 9th or 10th
Race Series Event 7 - May 23 or 24th
Race Series Event 8 - June 6 or 7th
AWA Prize Giving - June TBC
Secret tips
After spending a lot of time in Maui this winter I was able to test and compare a lot of different brands gear. This ranged from sails to simple things like mast extensions. However each of these things can make a huge difference to your sailing, and how easy your session is.

The most useful tool I found whilst being away was the newest North Sails Mast extensions. They have very carefully refined and improved the bases where they now can take the pressure of the whole slalom sail range (upto 9.2m). The have made some huge steps forward with the strength of the bases with some cool new features such as a quick release system. They make a huge difference with ease of rigging and tuning especially. If you find it a hassle to use a separate crank or use your harness to down haul your sails then I highly recommend looking into buying one of these.

When you want just a little bit more down haul or a little less you just give it a click until you find the perfect amount. This is the same for wave sails, I use this on my RDM extensions also now as they weigh no more. When un-rigging you can either release it with the crank or you can use the fast release as shown in the image above. Due to the new thread system they are user friendly for all sail brand's which is why the majority of PWA riders now use them also.

In simple English these are amazing and make your life so much easier! They aren't that much more expensive then an ordinary base yet enable perfect rigging and save your back from any stress. On a final note for those of you with wives wanting to get into the sport but they hate rigging there own gear. Well this is a way for you to allow them to easily rig there own gear.
AWA AGM
The 2014 AGM went well with a new President (Rohan), Vice President (Chris Bolt) and Secretary (Bernard Carey) being elected.

A huge thanks to Anton for all the work you have done over the past two years as president.
AWA Race Series & Harbour Blasts - 2014/15
The 2014 race series is going to be full of fun with a whole new structure. The racing will start at 11am each day with a Harbour Blast. This will be a long distance race which will be free for all AWA members to take part in. This race will be based around having fun and blasting with friends.

In the afternoon we will start the Race Series which all members are welcome to take part in. We will have both a Gold and Silver fleet this year. The silver fleet is a growing fleet with over 25 sailors competing on freeride, wave and slalom gear last season. A huge congratulations to Chris Bolt who won the Silver fleet last season, but we will see you in the Gold fleet this season.

Both Finn and Coral had some great races with Finn getting a 2nd and 3rd. Corals best results was an 8th which is very respectable considering the high level she was competing against.

Overall Finn came a very impressive 6th and Coral in 16th. They will both be training hard now in RS:X and Slalom with Finn doing some of the AWA Races Series this summer. For more updates follow their Facebook page.

For a full overview of their race results CLICK HERE

Here is a cool video of the Opening Ceremony
AWA Summer catch Up's
Come on down to Swashbucklers Restaurant and have a catch up with everyone before the season kicks off. Get the in's and outs for the upcoming summer whilst having a nice brew, wine or whiskey. Our first 'Catch Up' went really well with a great turnout of 20+ windsurfers. It was great to see Alan for Mad Loop Windsurfing School and Georgia from Flying Forwards Windsurfing School come down for the fun night. It was great to see some new face's along.

These Swashbuckler catch up's will be on the first Thursday of every month. They have a great outdoor area also so come on down after work (5.30) and enjoy the ambiance.
Thursday October 2nd
Thursday November 6th
Updates will be posted to the AWA Facebook Page Events.

North Island Cup
This season there will be a North Island Cup (slalom) awarded to the best result from 3 events:
- Tauranga Spring Windsurf Fun Slalom - September 20
- Auckland Race Series (1st event will be counted, if cancelled then the 2nd event will count) - October 18th or 19th or November 1 or 2nd
- Wellington Slalom Plus - November 29-30

Results will be based on the individuals best results in 2 of the 3 events (i.e. Auckland/Tauranga or Tauranga/Wellington)
Details TBC
Tauranga Video
Wellington Video

In order to enter these event you need to be a member of Windsurfing New Zealand or an affiliated club. CLICK HERE for where you can join WNZ. With joining you also are able to have a sail number for any wave or slalom event you enter.
Longboard Racing
Gary Hill has organised some longboard racing which is usually held at Lake Pupuke every Sunday. For updates visit the AWA Facebook page or contact Gary.
Jack Holiday - USA
Here is a report from Jack Holiday over in the USA.

"I have been in America for the last 5 months and have been doing a few events on the American Windsurf Tour. The AWT is a 6 stop wave sailing tour with events in Santa Cruz, Oregon, Peru, Mexico, Hatteras and Maui.
I went across to the Santa Cruz event in June and even though we didn't get any wind we had a couple of SUP surfing contests in which I managed to make the semis in the first one and the quarters in the next one. Beside the surf the highlights were hanging out with the pros that come across to the event; Levi Siver, Brawzinho, Boujmaa Guilloul, Josh Stone, Kevin Pritchard, Francisco Goya and Bernd Roediger to name a few. Unfortunately I also managed to lose all my gear off the roof somewhere between San Fran airport and Santa Cruz so I had to bail on the Oregon event which scored sickeningly good DTL conditions.

Since then the tour has had two ridiculous events in Peru and Mexico, particularly Peru where the mast high+ point break ran so long everyone hired jetskis to make it back up to the top of the point.
Anyway in September I'm looking forward to heading to event in Hatteras, which are a series of barrier islands of the coast of North Carolina with perfect flat water on the inside and waves on the outside. I am also heading to a huge tradeshow for the 2015 kite/windsurf/sup gear, so if anyone wants a review or info on any particular model let me know. I am definitely heading back in 2015 to do the Santa Cruz and Oregon events and potentially the Peru event, It would be cool to get a few New Zealanders over there so check out this photo and start saving!

Also Laurence tells me the tour director is a very nice person ;)
"
Keep it safe on the water

Every been interested to know who has right of way on the water. Well have a read of this LINK and get a quick understanding. Its a super simple outline of water safety rules. Everyone should understand these in order to keep yurself and other safe on the water.

Summer Work
Auckland Windsurfing School is looking for some weekend instructors over the summer. Whether you have experience or not contact Pete Smith to find out all the details. I can personally say that coaching is a great way to improve your own skills and also learn more about the industry.
Crashes
For those of you who haven't seen this I'm sure you will enjoy it. This is a video of me training in Maui, I had a few big crashes while keeping up with Peter Slate and Kai Hopf...

Crashes Maui 2014 - NZL252 from Laurence Carey on Vimeo.

If you have anything you feel I have missed or would like put in the next newsletter then please contact me.
Kind Regards,